Wednesday, September 27, 2006

That's right. They suck. I am so flippin' sick of treating this house for fleas and so sick of imagining I'm itching, that I want to kick some flea ass. Today, I spent HOURS doing 6 loads of laundry (literally), vacuuming every single solitary crack in our hardwood floors downstairs (my back is killing me from bending over), vacuuming all carpets (again), vacuuming all furniture (again), spraying all surfaces (again), using my Little Green Machine on all of the furniture downstairs, and wet mopping the entire first floor. Seriously. I'm done. So flippin' done.And now tonight, Steve discovered more upstairs. So I just spent an HOUR sprinkling Borax all over the carpets and mattresses and I'll vacuum it up in the morning. Steve's sleeping on the couch (because he's grossed out about the thought of them in the bed), and I'm going to sleep with both girls in Grace's bed (To protect them from the vicious fleas?... I dunno. Just play along, will ya?)I have about 8 billion more loads of laundry to do tomorrow (and am seriously contemplating just putting all dirty laundry directly into the trash to save myself the work) and more Borax sprinkling and vacuuming to do.Let's throw in that I really should take Salinger to the vet tomorrow (because I think something other than the fleas is wrong with him) AND the fact that I have a pretty big deadline for Friday and the work I have to do is going to take a loooooong time. Since I'll be spending my days pretending to be an exterminator, I guess I'll be performing my "real job" at night. ALL fucking night. I swear to god, I am soooo done with pets. Done. Finished. The end. Between Salinger's 8 billion problems last year, the fact that I have to give him a flippin' laxative every damn day for the rest of his life, the mountains of cat hair that seem to appear overnight regardless of the amount of cleaning I do, the constant checking of the upstairs to make sure that I find any crap or urine puddles that one of them left there, and now the damn fleas, I have NEVER been so ready to be pet-free in my life. I don't wish they were dead or anything. And I'm not going to have them put to sleep for no reason. But I'd be lying if I said there won't be a little bit of relief in this household when they decide to meet their maker in the sky.Of course, with my luck, they'll both live another 20 damn years...[grumble grumble...]

8 comments:

I've been reading your blog for some time, but never left a comment. I'm a friend of Chelle's. I couldn't help but read this one and had to comment. I know your pain cuz I have two cats also and it seems there always is a problem with one of them. One of them got fleas and they don't go outside either so the only place I could think of where they caught it was when they ran into the garage for I swear only about a minute until I caught him. I completely understand your frustration with the powder pouring, vacuuming, washing everything, and the list repeats itself about 10 times. Why isn't your husband helping you with some of this??? :) You possibly can't do it all on your own. It's alot of work! I hope it is soon over for you. Good luck!

Hi Allison,I'm a lurker to some of Melissas Mommy friends. You guys are great. Just thought I would comment on this topic because we also had flea problems this year. This year has been really bad for fleas. I live in Texas...we don't have ANY pets and still were inundated with fleas. The exterminator came and sprayed, but said that vacuuming ALOT would help get rid of them. He also said that although they like to ride in on the pets, they will get in the house completely by themselves (as evidenced in my home). I am from California and had cats when I lived there. There was this stuff I used to get at Petco in a big huge bucket. It was a salty, powdery substance (can't remember the name) and you would sift it over all the flooring and then take a broom and pound it deep into the carpet or seams in floors...wait 24-48 hours...then vacuum. Within a few days there was not a flea in the house - for TWO years (we moved at that point). It worked great!! We were a bit dehydrated for a couple days though :) Good luck with your flea situation and I hope you make your deadline.

My husband is helping as much as he can. But he's at work all day, and when he gets home, he usually has something else to do around here or has to do all of the paperwork for his business. Not too mention that we found mold all inside the walls in the rental unit in our backyard (no one's living there right now... it's Steve's weight room), so he's been spending weeks gutting the entire thing. [sigh] It never ends. LOL!

FF: Actually, what you describe at Petco is what I've been doing with Borax. Borax is a laundry aid (non-toxic for the most part... LOL!) that does that same thing. Everything online says it's the cheaper (but just as effective) way to do it. I sprinkled it and broomed it in last night and I'll vacuum it up later. I'll probably repeat the whole thing again tonight. Fun. Fun. Fun. LOL!

Once again, Texas has FLEAS and lots of them. this is the only way we have ever ever ever been able to rid ourselves of them. First drop the cat at the vets for a dip. go to the store and in the pest control isle they sell bombs for roaches, etc. but make sure you get the ones with pyrethrans in them buy 2 boxes (6 total) or one for each bedroom, living roo, basement, etc. then run home, turn off the ac/heater and all the fans, shut all the windows and set off all the bombs and exit the house for 4 hours. then have Steve spray the yard while the house is being bomed. dont just spray, saturate the place. when you get home, open all the windows, air out the house, turn on the fans etc. the bombs with pyrethrans will kill the live ones and the eggs that are waiting to be hatched. trust me on this, we do this twice a year. these darn things come in on your pants, shoes, as well as the pets. also, make sure you put the flea drops on the pets too.--krishna